Two main factors to report today that contributed to Mirjana's loss. Grandin's ability to stay in the points was a major factor as
well as Lucic's own impatience to stay in them. Yesterday we saw Lucic's hit or miss power baseline game "on," whereas
today her game went "off" at several times throughout the match, most notibly at its end.
Grandin's main strategy to prolong the points for as long as possible and wait for the Lucic error worked to a tee in set
one as Lucic soon found herself down 6-4 after several impatient errors. In set two Mirjana's high risk shots mostly went inside
the lines or kissed them. A few aces, backhand and forehand winners later, Lucic had taken set two 6-3.
In set three Grandin became even more determined to try and force more Lucic errors and unleashed yet more heavy
left-handed topsin. More netted or long groundstrokes from Lucic left her down 0-3. Standing on the baseline to power her strokes,
Lucic kept the ball in play long enough to win the next two games to pull to 2-3.
Grandin at this point began slicing her forehand and backhand almost exclusively to try and draw errors from Lucic. Lucic's attempts
to overpower the slices resulted in too many errors for her to overcome as she hit one final forehand crosscourt long to lose the match.
Mirjana immediately after the match appeared dissapointed but soon afterwards her smile returned as all in all a match won yesterday
after almost two years off the WTA Tour could be counted as a minor success. I asked Lucic if she planned to play more tournaments and
she replied, "I hope so. That's the plan."
